Escaping the Belay

Scenario: Two SAR members, Slippery Sam and Shuffling Sue, have been given an assignment to search some dangerous slopes on the flanks of Mt. Baldy in January. The area is treacherous. The snow is very hard packed and slippery. They make the decision to travel while roped up. They each tie into the dynamic rope using a Kiwi coil. They dress in the appropriate attire including ice axe and crampons. Off they go. However Sam, true to his name, slips. He bashes a few “targets” on his giant slide down the mountain resulting in being knocked out. Quickly the rope tension is transferred to Sue, she catches Sam’s fall as she hits the snow, digs in and waits for the inevitable huge tug on the rope. Her style is impeccable. She plants the ice axe pick into the hard snow and holds the fall. Sue is now pinned to the snow, holding Sam who is dangling, unconscious, over a precipitous cliff.  Her weight is being used while lifting up on the ice axe shaft to lever her pick deeply into the snow. Now what does she do?

Problem: Sue is now in the position of being a solo-rescuer. Sam is unconscious with his full weight on the rope, hanging off Sue. She is trapped. Before Sue can rescue Sam, she has to rescue herself. She is intimately connected to the rope system. Her first task is to escape the belay. Once free, she can determine what she can do to assist Sam.

Solution: Sue’s first task is to transfer Sam’s weight from her own harness to a snow anchor. There are many ways to accomplish this. The following is just one suggestion. There are some assumptions made with each step.

1)    Sue will stabilize herself by digging in her feet, knees, hips, etc., into the snow.

2)    She then fully plants her ice axe by burying the shaft to the hilt.

3)    Sue attaches some type of software; cord or webbing, to the tensioned rope a foot or so below her.

4)    The software is connected to the ice axe and tensioned, hence removing as much slack as possible.

5)    Sue shifts her weight downward, slowly loading the ice axe with Sam’s weight.

6)    If all is well, Sue unclips herself from the rope, having escaped the belay.

Discussion: The particulars of the situation can make this very easy or quite difficult. It helps to anticipate that such an event could happen. By doing so, a person would have pre-rigged some of the gear in a particular way. When tying into the rope initially, it would be wise to clip into a loop with a carabiner rather than tie it into the harness. Thus it would be much easier to separate from the rope. A Purcell Prusik can be attached to the rope before climbing. In that way, it will be ready to quickly attach to the ice axe. It is easy to then tension it, allowing the rescuer to escape the belay.